Event 5 – Rev. Ch. 9 V 1 – 5
Locusts have always been a problem but never to the degree that they are today. As temperatures have increased, locusts have moved with the climate and are now causing havoc as far north in Europe as France.
When faced with a shortage of crops to eat, Locusts have been known to eat the carcasses of other Locusts and failing that, they have been known to eat the clothes of people’s backs.
The Locusts in Revelation Chapter 9 for 2,000 years have defied explanation until now. Some people have tried to say they are Helicopter Gunships and not Locusts at all, but would God have to wait for man to invent a machine so that He could bring judgment? I don’t think so, otherwise the book of Revelation would be full of mechanical Locusts buzzing about and God would be restricted by man’s inventiveness. Apart from this, John was very familiar with Locusts and recognised these as such, but they were like nothing he had ever seen before.
Here’s the scripture followed by the natural explanation.
Revelation Chapter 9 Verse 1 – 11 says:
The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star (Angel) that had fallen from the sky to earth. The star (angel) was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. When he opened the abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke of a giant furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. And out of the smoke Locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads (Non Christians). They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man.
During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. (NIV)
To get an understanding of how this event takes place, we first need to investigate atavisms and taxonomy.
Firstly, atavisms are the appearance of features in an animal or human that look like those of an ancestor.
There are however many “so called” atavisms which are really nothing more than unusual features. Some of these have been labelled “vestigial” however, almost all such organs have been found to have an important use.
A classic example of this mislabelling, is the appearance of pelvic protrusions on whales containing unossified (cartilage that hasn’t turned into bone) structures that resemble the femurs, tibia, fibulae and occasionally metatarsals of land dwelling mammals with legs. These protrusions are often quite small and appear to be of no use to a whale which might possess them, however it is now known that they support the penis during coitus.
Occaisionally, humans are born with tails containing vertebrae, muscles and nerves and which are covered with skin, hair and sweat glands. Such babies have even been known to have control over the tail in response to their emotional state, though they are usually removed for cosmetic reasons very early on, so it is not known if the control is voluntary.
This is almost certainly due to genetic errors during the development of the foetus.
The interesting thing is that human fetuses have for some time in the stages of their early development, have a small tail containing vertebrae.
Under normal conditions of development these vertebrae fuse together, curl underneath and thus form a support to the intestines.
True Atavisms
These are organs that are coded in the genetic DNA of an animal but are not expressed in the final animal born. An example is the loss of sight in fish in darl caverns where there is no light. It is possible to breed them and produce a strain that is not blind as the genes have been allowed to be expressed.
There are two possible explanations for an atavism.
The first proposed by evolutionists is that an atavism is a throw back inherited from a common ancestor. The problem with this hypothesis is that it doesn’t fit with micro evolution which preaches gradual changes over a long period of time and also, as they are not universal, does not fit with the hypothetical common ancestors. The other problem with the evolution explanation is that evolution doesn’t work backwards.
A much more plausible explanation was proposed by Louis Bolk (1866-1930) who concluded that mammals share common design templates and that atavisms were not a genetic throw back to an earlier generation. In these templates are traits which are suppressed in our development due to Genetic or Epigenetic factors that may involve the death of some cells (Apoptosis).
It is the existence of these common design templates which is the key to the strange appearance of the Locusts in the Revelation Chapter 9.
Now, having established that the probability is that God uses common design templates, we now need to establish whether the Locust shares a template with any other creatures. This is where Taxonomy comes in.
The Taxonomist classifies different forms of life based on its similarities. The evolutionist having put all life into groups or Taxa, then assumes a common ancestor for the development of that group.
In the diagram shown above, it is possible to see the hypothetical common ancestors marked by the red dots. It is also worth pointing out that the character changes inherited by all descendants marked by the blue dots are also hypothetical. The important part for the benefit of this article is the Arthropod group.
If mammals share a common templates at differing levels, then Arthropods will also. The Arthropod group includes Locusts, Crickets, Scorpions etc. which will share a common template.
The strange appearance of the Locusts described in the book of Revelation is actually an atavism where Genetic, Epigentic or the Apoptosis processes have been interfered with and traits that would normally be suppressed in the template are allowed to develop.
The Locust described is actually a combination of a Jerusalem Cricket which is famed for having a human like face and Locust with various other unsupressed traits coming through.
There are also a number of Insects in the Arthropod group which have long silky hair and others that have teeth which fit the description given in the scripture so this creature already exists in design.
The cause of the atavism is toxic metals. Toxic metals are known to cause mutations and deformities.
The adult Locust lays its eggs in the soil, and a soil contaminated with toxic metals as described in The Global Meltdown Domino Effect will result in an atavism as described.
Finally, the scripture says that this plague will last for 5 months of the year.
The lifespan of a Locust is 5 months.
